Object relational mappers (ORMs) such as LINQ, Hibernate, and ActiveRecord bridge the gap between the relational database world, and the object-oriented world. By abstracting the database into "virtual database objects", they let programmers develop in any language and environment that they like without ever writing a line of SQL. It sounds great, but is the ORMs sweet song actually a siren's call? This talk will put ORMs on trial to help us find the answer.

If you missed the webcast, a Flash recording of the webcast (with slides) is now available here. After entering some contact information about you, you'll then be redirected to a page that automatically downloads the flash presentation and starts it straightaway.